On our second full day in Paris we took a 30 minute train ride to wait in the rain for over an hour before finally making it inside the Versailles palace gates. Woohoo!!
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| Inside Versailles' gates |
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| Versailles courtyard |
It was still raining off and on, so Bill and I (and what seemed like the entire population of Paris) headed inside to tour the castle's state rooms. We always like to look up in famous places as the ceilings are often just as beautiful as the room. Versailles' ceilings did not disappoint!
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| Ornate Ceiling #1 |
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| Ornate Ceiling #2 |
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| Ornate Ceiling #3 |
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| Ornate Ceiling #4 |
The last royal inhabitants of Versailles, King Loius XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were not know for their frugal nature. As I'm sure you know, it did not go well for them. The palace has been used after their untimely demise, but was been restored to its glory days. And let's just say they liked things ornate back in the day!
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| Fancy schmancy |
Even a wee door knocker or doodad of some variety was gold.
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| Ornate doodad |
I know I was probably jostled when I took this picture (did I mention there were about a million people that day?), but it could also be the ghost of Marie Antoinette swirling around in this bedchamber! ;-)
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| The ghost of Marie Antoinette?!? |
The hall of mirrors was the fanciest room in a castle full of fancy rooms. More chandalliers and large mirrors (which were hard to make back in the day) that you could shake a stick at. But I wouldn't recommend shaking a stick in this or any other room. Ever. Behold, the hall of mirrors!
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| The hall of mirrors |
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| The hall of mirrors |
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| The hall of mirrors |
If you've never been to Versailles, the photo below gives you an idea as to how large the mirrors (and statues and chandeliers) are in this room. Keep in mind, though, I am only five feet tall on a good day!
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| Three statues in the hall of mirrors |
Bill really liked this statue of Diana, goddess of war, within the hall of mirrors.
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| Statue of XX in the hall of mirrors |
After bumping up against the teeming masses, we decided to have a civilized lunch in the palace's sit-down restaurant. The food was delicious. The drinking chocolate? Out of this world!!!
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| Lunch at Versailles |
After lunch we went back outside to tour the gardens and walk down to Marie Antoinette's private cottages. However, it had started chucking down rain again and our museum passes didn't include the gardens. Therefore, we would have had to pay more euros to see the underside of my umbrella (featured below, the red thingy hanging from my hip). We had already established that we'd have to come back to Paris to give the Lourve a proper visit, so we'll just have to add Versailles' gardens onto our next trip!
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| Chateau de Versailles! |
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